Former military chief gets life sentence in Turkey

Protesters clash with riot and paramilitary polices as they fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse them outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government in the five-year
— AP

Protesters clash with riot and paramilitary polices as they fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse them outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government in the five-year
/ AP

People try to protect themselves as riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted governme— AP

People try to protect themselves as riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted governme
/ AP

People try to protect themselves as riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted governme— AP

People try to protect themselves as riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted governme
/ AP

People try to protect themselves as riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted governme— AP

People try to protect themselves as riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted governme
/ AP

Riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. (AP Photo)— AP

Riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. (AP Photo)
/ AP

People try to protect themselves as riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted governme— AP

People try to protect themselves as riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted governme
/ AP

A protester wears a gas mask to protect himself as riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist— AP

A protester wears a gas mask to protect himself as riot and paramilitary police officers fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse protesters outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist
/ AP

Police take a position as clashes with protestors continue outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government in the five-year "Ergenekon" trial and sentenced of up to 47 years or — AP

Police take a position as clashes with protestors continue outside the Silivri jail complex in Silivri, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 5, 2013. Some 275 people - including military officers, politicians and journalists - are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The court has acquitted 21 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government in the five-year "Ergenekon" trial and sentenced of up to 47 years or
/ AP

ISTANBUL 
In a landmark trial, scores of people - including Turkey's former military chief, politicians and journalists - were convicted on Monday of plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government soon after it came to power in 2002.

Retired Gen. Ilker Basbug was the most prominent defendant among some 250 people facing verdicts after a five-year trial that has become a central drama in tensions between the country's secular elite and Erdogan's Islamic-oriented Justice and Development Party.

The trial has sparked protests, and on Monday police blocked hundreds of demonstrators from reaching the High Criminal Court in Silivri, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Istanbul, in a show of solidarity with the defendants.

But Monday's verdicts were not expected to set off the kind of violent anti-government demonstrations that were recently sparked by a government plan to build a replica Ottoman-era barracks at a park near Istanbul's central Taksim Square.

In addition to Basbug, at least 18 other defendants were sentenced to life in prison, including 10 retired military officers and Dogu Perincek, leader of the left-wing and nationalist Workers Party. At least 64 other defendants received sentences ranging from a year to 47 years, according to state-run TRT television news.

At least 21 people were acquitted. The fully tally of verdicts and sentences was not immediately available.

The defendants were accused of plotting high-profile attacks that prosecutors said were aimed at sowing chaos in Turkey to prepare the way for a military coup. The prosecutions already have helped Erdogan's government reshape Turkey's military and assert civilian control in a country that had seen three military coups since 1960.

The trial, which began in 2008, grew out of an investigation into the seizure of 27 hand grenades at the home of a noncommissioned officer in Istanbul in 2007.

The defendants were accused of being part of an alleged ultranationalist and pro-secular gang called Ergenekon, which takes its name from a legendary valley in Central Asia believed to be the ancestral homeland of Turks.

In thousands of pages of indictments, prosecutors maintained that the gang was behind a series of violent acts, including one in 2006 on a courthouse that killed a judge. Prosecutors say that the incidents were made to look as though they were carried out by Islamic militants, in a bid to create turmoil and provoke a military intervention.

The defendants have rejected the accusations, and they are expected to appeal Monday's verdicts and sentences to the Court of Appeals in Ankara.

Representatives of Turkey's main pro-secular opposition party lashed out against the verdicts, accusing the government of influencing the justice system.

"A verdict that was decided five years ago was made public today," said Akif Hamzacebi, a legislator from the opposition Republican People's Party. "All principles of rights, justice, human rights, fair trial were trampled on here."

Peter Stano, spokesman for the EU's Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, said he would not comment on the specific rulings, but noted that the European Union has expressed concern before about defendants' rights in Turkey and indictments that are too general.